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Geek Alert! The PC Aquarium

Witness water cooled personal computer taken to the extreme. Miami engineer Francesco Hofer designs the AquariusPC: A working personal computer that is fully submerged INSIDE AN AQUARIUM. Just how does he do this?

The Marrakech, one of three AquariusPC models.

The AquariusPC is a fully operational computer system designed inside a liquid-filled 5 gallon aquarium for the ultimate in silent, cool computing. Yes; The Intel/AMD CPU, motherboard, Nvidia/ATI videocard, memory, and power supply are completely submerged! And yes, you can turn on this computer to surf the internet, crunch your tax numbers, or play a game of minesweeper .

Hofer pulls of the seemingly impossible feat by filling the AquariusPC's "aquarium enclosure" with pharmaceutical grade mineral oil, chosen for the following properties:

High heat conductivity

No electrical conductivity

Odorless and colorless

Low viscosity

Non-flammable

Non-oxidizing

These characteristics allow the electronics to function normally without fear of short-circuiting, all while the mineral oil provides cooling that Hofer claims is "much more reliable than fan or liquid cooling systems." An air pump provides convective circulation of the solution in order to transfer heat out of the aquarium. The only part that is not submerged is the hard drive, whose moving parts would not properly function because the density of the oil interferes with its mechanical parts. However, we don't see why you couldn't use a solid state hard drive in the AquariusPC.

The bottom of the AquariusPC is even lined with gravel for the full aquarium effect. No; You can't keep fish in the mineral oil.

Prices range from $500-600 for a fully assembled computer ... not bad considering you'll be the only guy on your block with a PC aquarium; It's a guaranteed conversation piece. Here is a video of the AquariusPC in action.